newsletter november 2012.pdf - Youth Networks

– Newsletter November 2012 - 

”DNS Tvind” 

The Necessary 

Teacher Training College 

www.dns-tvind.dk 

News from the DNS 

teams, this time from 

Morocco, 

Mozambique, 

Denmark & Palestine 

1


WHAT IS NEW IN NOVEMBER? 

Photo report: DNS 2012 in Morocco 

Our first year students send best greetings from Africa—in particular 

from Morocco. They had good investigation periods 

where they lived with families, experienced Moroccan village 

life, fixed their busses here and there, enjoyed Moroccan tea and 

cuisine, dig deep into different political, social and economical 

questions of Morocco and took care of their second home—the 

bus. Read more 

My job is more than only work, by Darja 

For sure, my job is more than only work. My job – is my life 

now. I spend 24/7 at my working place, with colleagues, with 

students. We share our daily routine, responsibilities, plans, 

and with a time – memories. Now those people are the most 

important part of my life – present. Read more 

Manual for beginner teachers, by Marina 

Travel for one month, by bus, from Denmark to Turkey, with 

a group of eight students. 

This was the proposal that I couldn’t reject and to be honest I 

just had the same words spinning in my mind, “It will be awesome!” 

Read more 


Moroccan village investigation, by Uldis 

I spent four days with my team-mate Egle in a Moroccan 

mountain village. On a sunny day around four in 

the afternoon we were dropped out of (maybe just off) 

our bus by our teacher in Morocco mountain area. 

Teacher pointed up the mountains: "Those houses, it 

looks like there is a village. If someone will take you 

there then it is fine. If not," he pointed down the mountain, 

"try your luck there." Read more 

Visiting the museum in Maputo, by Ruta 

8th of October is a teacher's day in Mozambique. Usually 

it is a holiday for the teachers and students, but since 

our students and teachers are living together on the campus, 

I and Gita have decided to bring the students to the 

museum in Maputo. Read more 

Palestine: it is not a conflict, it is an occupation, 

by Natalya 

During my „Do what you find most appropriate to do” 

period I had a chance to go to Palestine myself for the 1 st 

time. Moreover I could organize a study trip for 4 students 

from PTG (Practical-Theoretic Basic Education) 

and make a project with our friend’s organization in the 

refugee camp. Well, it sounded like a really right thing 

for me to do. Read more 

2


DNS 2012 is already in Morocco 

Our first year students send best greetings from Africa—in particular from Morocco. They had good investigation 

periods where they lived with families, experienced Moroccan village life, fixed their busses here and 

there, enjoyed Moroccan tea and cuisine, dig deep into different political, social and economical questions of 

Morocco and took care of their second home—the bus. Hereby you can enjoy some pictures from their first 

month, already reaching Morocco, but on the way towards Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. 

Follow DNS 2012 on our Official DNS Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/PromotionTvind 


3


My job is more than only work, by Darja DNS 2013 

For sure, my job is more than only work. My job – is my life 

now. I spend 24/7 at my working place, with colleagues, 

with students. We share our daily routine, responsibilities, 

plans, and with a time – memories. Now those people are 

the most important part of my life – present. 

About one month ago I started to work in Bustrup School 

Center (1 hour away from the DNS college). The main thing 

about this place – it is a school, one of those small boarding 

schools. They have around 19 students, who are ”troubled 

kids”, but not the most hard case. Every one of them have 

their own study program, but from the first view, and most 

of the time, they are just simple teenagers. Ages vary from 12 

-18, so probably I am looking like one of the students here. 

Their program consists of a lot of practical stuff. 

Bustrup has a fitness center, a small gallery and we just 

started to run a shop with 

things from China (not classic 

ones, as I thought before, but 

modern ones) – there are 

cups, pillows, sofas, clocks, 

teapots, vases etc. 

As I heard when I was coming 

here – the main purpose 

of my job is that shop. All the 

pedagogues are doing their 

jobs, and there is not much 

time or energy left for something 

else. As I don't know 

Danish yet, and I cannot 

work with students, I should 

just help somewhere around 

that shop, the gallery and the 

fitness center. 

But all along and as time goes, I am working with students. 

Bustrup is housing two care homes – one is in the same 

building as the school is, just upstairs, and here a few students 

and some teachers and pedagogues live. The other 

care home is a house ten minutes walk from the main building 

– it is on the top of a hill, and has a nice view to the fjord 

– that's why it is called Udsigten (view). Four guys 14-18 

years old live there + one is coming only on weekends and 

he is 20 already. One or two pedagogues are always in the 

house. There are around six pedagogues and they are changing 

all week long, spending 1-1,5 in the house. When they 

are changing all the time, it is hard to look after the house. 

They have to cook, to take kids everywhere, solve some 

problems, so the house is not vacuum cleaned for few weeks 

sometimes. 


When I came 

here I had no particularresponsibilities 

at all. On 

one hand – it was 

nice, because I 

could do whatever 

I like, and it 

w o u l d b e 

counted as a 

work. So, first 

weeks I was helping to cook and joined art room activities, 

yoga lessons, joined some programme for students, was helping 

to clean, was spending some time with students, feeding 

horses, helping to prepare for the trip and a lot of other 

things. On the other hand – all the day long I was doing 

something, as wanted to be useful on my job, and I still 

couldn't be sure that it was enough that day, because being 

everywhere – is the same as being nowhere. So, I am happy 

now to receive some everyday responsibilities. 

Every day I am waking up with everybody in the house, and 

we are going to the school, where they are doing studies, and 

I am going to do some tasks in the shop (there still are a lot of 

work of making it nice, advertising, and comfortable). Also I 

am still joining pedagogues group – next week helping with 

TCE and preparation of presentation for the annual school 

event. I am quite good with one autistic student, so now we 

will go to the gym every day. Also we found a good way of 

making me learn Danish and in the same way get along with 

housemates – now I have lessons of Danish with one of them. 

But there are thousands of other tasks – as I am a person, 

who always can help. 

I am developing “from inside”. If you don't have energy, 

then you cannot do anything properly, and it is hard to find 

balance between expressing yourself too much/ not enough, 

overworking, working not enough, moving forward, or not. 

Sometimes I am losing myself in thoughts and it takes time to 

get back into a good and proper self feeling. But I am working 

on it everyday. 

There are a lot of cases, where you cannot do anything, because 

some decisions are already done in the past. That's 

why self control, selfdevelopment, “not sleeping” all the 

time – is important. Because every single decision made influences 

our future. 

So, my work is more than only work. My work – it is a lot of 

experiences, which like stairs are leading to the selfdevelopment, 

and fulfilling every moment of daily life. I love 

my job. 

4


Moroccan village investigation, by Uldis DNS 2012 

"The world I love, the tears I drop, to be part of the way 

can't stop. Ever wonder if it's all for You." /Red Hot Chili 

Peppers/ 

I spent four days with my team-mate Egle in a Moroccan 

mountain village. On a sunny day around four in the afternoon 

we were dropped out of (maybe just off) our bus by 

our teacher in Morocco mountain area. Teacher pointed up 

the mountains: "Those houses, it looks like there is a village. 

If someone will take you there then it is fine. If not," he 

pointed down the mountain, "try your luck there." 

At first we were looking how the bus is leaving. I didn't 

want to look until it faded across several hills on the main 

road. We knew that it will be dark in next two hours. Therefore 

I started to go up the mountain road while Egle took 

some 'good-bye' pictures. There was a proper asphalt road 

along the foot of the mountain. Besides the completely astonishing 

mountain views, I saw the closest house of the 

supposed village. Our teacher also noticed this house: 

"There is nothing interesting for You. You should go 

higher." Explanation was simple: the house looked like 

some rich guys property - smooth facade in light colors, 

plastic windows, Kangoo next to house and satellite dish on 

top of house. Fine, let's just skip this one. But how can we 

get up the mountain? Next houses were not so close to this 

one. Is it possible that cars are also going there? Let's just go 

further the road and maybe we will see some way leading 

up to that mosque tower in the center of other houses. 

It somehow appeared that after 30 meters the road went 

around the corner of some mountain rocks and further not 

up, but down, and eventually it turned completely away 

from our mountain peak to another. 

After going half an hour down and back up again we ended 


up in front of the same supposed fancy house. It looked like 

it was the only one “so fancy” on this side of the mountain. 

Now the only difference in picture was that there was a 

guy 

sitting on the rock on the other side of the road in front of 

the house. Let's go to him. 

"As-salamu alaykum, do You speak English?" 

"No." 

"Parlez-vous français?" 

"Un peu français. Un peu espagnol." Answered the guy less 

than thirty years of age, bit shorter than me, but by look 

much lighter in weight. He had black hair and darkish skin. 

He was wearing black leather jacket, blue jeans, black hood 

with zipper, light blue long-sleeve football sweater, and black 

PUMA football kind of sneakers. But no socks. 

"Ha ha! But I don't speak neither French, neither Spanish! 

Non français, non espagnol." 

I was smiling widely, and Egle also was smiling. But the man 

was not. But what to do?! 

"We are students. Studentos, amigo. And we want to get up 

there." I pointed to mountain houses. "And we want to sleep 

there." Instantly I put my hands together as for Christian 

praying just not in front of me but under one of my ear's and 

bent my head on the same side where I had put my hands. 

That to my understanding was common charade for sleeping. 

"And then we want to eat. Mange." And I turned with right 

hand imaginary spoon in front of my mouth. 

"English?" 

"Yes." 

"Non français?" 

"No." 

"Non espagnol?" 

"No." 

"English?" 

"Yes.” 

(continue on the next 

page, page 6) 

5


Moroccan village investigation, by Uldis DNS 2012 

During the conversation our new friend was all the time 

wrapping in his fingers something blackish and sticky like 

plasticizer. 

"Espera, espera, espera." He was saying and holding his free 

hand in half high position close to his chest. 

Then he showed with slight gesture for us to sit down with 

him. 

"Espera." 

And slight gesture. 

I sat. Egle was standing on the road. Then she came closer 

and asked, "What are we doing now?" 

"Waiting,” I smiled both directions. 

The guy put his stuff from his hand to his pocket and took 

out of other pocket cigarette making ingredients - papers, 

tobacco and filters -, and started to organize them. He made 

a proper joint with the plasticizer like thing in it. For sure 

that thing was hash. And then he started to smoke it and 

offered to us. 

"No. We are students and we cannot smoke. No." 

Because of our refusal he didn't show any kind of special 

face expressions. All time the same face. Then he smoked 

and thought. He put on his hood and smoked some more. 

Then he stood up, took his phone and called to someone. 

Talked bit in Arabic and gave phone to me. "English." 

"Hi." 

"Hi. Only English?" 

"Yes." 

"Me not good in English. But ok. You want sleep?" 

"Yes." 

"How many people?" 


"Two." 

"How many nights?" 

"Three." 

"Ok. Give phone to man." 

They talked in Arabic and gave the phone back to me. 

"Ok. Together one thousand and six hundred Dirkhems." 

"I don't have that much money. I have only two hundred." 

"Only two hundred for night?" 

"No. I have only two hundred. Only two hundred per three 

nights." 

"Ok. Give back phone to man." 

They talked shortly in Arabic and ended conversation. 

Silence. 

At that point I was already in standing position. So I continued 

conversation. 

"Ok. Then we are going up the mountain. Me and my partner 

we want to see what is …" 

"Espera, espera, espera…" And he showed slight gesture 

with hand so we sat down. 

"Espera." 

I sat. Man sat as well. He finished his joint, got up, and took 

from me my bag and asked us with a gesture of his hand to 

fallow him across the road directions to the fancy house. 

6

– – Newsletter Newsletter November October 2012 - - 

Manual for beginner teachers, by Marina DNS 2011 

Travel for one month, by bus, from Denmark to Turkey, 

with a group of eight students. 

This was the proposal that I couldn’t reject and to be honest I 

just had the same words spinning in my mind, “It will be 

awesome!” This travel was part of my saving-up job, here in 

the last period of my second year of DNS. 

PTG is a school integrated in Tvind which basis is to educate 

and integrate youngsters with challenges together with 

youngsters with advantages. The combination of these two 

groups creates a special way of education that provides, for 

both, unique experiences. 

I remember I asked what would be my role during the 

travel, since I did not have any experience as a teacher. I was 

explained that since I am a very political person, my main 

role was to be mainly together with the four girls, talking 

and supporting them in the future situations. 

On the 1 st of November I put my bags in the bus, said goodbye 

to my team and Tvind and “embarked” on one more trip 

that would blow my mind. 

If you are planning to travel with a group of students 

through fourteen different countries, during one month, 

please read these advices: 

I - Practice body language 

“Sorry, I don’t understand Danish,” – I said. And she started 


to move her hands, trying to explain to me something. I got 

the idea, answered with my hands and we moved on. 

Language can be a barrier, and that is a problem well known 

all over the world, but what to do when you have to break 

down all the barriers and communicate, doesn’t matter what, 

with your students? 

Let me start to say that it is not easy. You see yourself in a 

completely new environment and new country, with people 

that you don’t really know, jumping around, making noise 

and speaking a language that you don’t understand. English 

might not help, Danish is a hard option, silence cannot be 

used during one month and body language is not enough. 

So, my advice is: use all. Make yourself understandable, as 

much as you can and enjoy it: Laugh about yourself, the others, 

together, and let the communication flow. 

II – Love before Demand 

Never demand something from your students before you 

give them your shoulder to sleep during a long night travel 

in the bus. Before you prepare to them a dedicated sandwich 

or put water in their face when they are not feeling well. Give 

them your love and compassion before you demand whatever 

is needed, otherwise your words will fall in an empty 

hole between you and them. 

III – Swallow your strong opinions and pride 

The teachers working with you have more experience with 

the students - that is a fact. But you will consider many times 

their reactions, decisions and attitudes and you will conclude 

that, sometimes, they are not the best. However, their experience 

will talk louder and you, as a beginner teacher, only 

have to understand that is your time to learn with them. Consider 

yourself which behavior you think is correct and improve 

the ones that you think are not appropriate. However, 

independently of your opinions, do not contradict the other 

teachers in front of the students. It is better to let the students 

think that you don’t have strong opinions or preferences than 

start arguing with their authority role model, in front of the 

students. 

IV – Be creative and teach with an attitude 

Your students will appreciate and you will have fun. Use 

your creativity to surprise them, to get their attention, to 

make them laugh and mainly, to make them learn! 

Through your own attitude you can show the principles and 

values that you want them to learn. If you try to teach something 

and your attitudes show the opposite, you will not 

manage to pass the message you want. 

7


Palestine: it is not a conflict, it is an occupation, by Natalya DNS 2010 

3 years ago I’ve met a group of children from Palestine in 

Tvind summer camp. They told about their life in the refugee 

camp and situation in Palestine. It was shocking, unbelievable 

and I felt stupid that I’ve never heard about it before. 

Since then I was following the news and participated in 

organizing few events about it in Denmark and one more 

summer camp for Palestinian kids. 

During my „Do what you find most appropriate to do” period 

I had a chance to go to Palestine myself for the 1 st time. 

Moreover I could organize a study trip for 4 students from 

PTG (Practical-Theoretic Basic Education) and make a project 

with our friend’s organization in the refugee camp. Well, 

it sounded like a really right thing for me to do. 

Palestine exists under Israeli occupation for 45 years. People 

have lost hope that there can be a peaceful solution to this 

situation. Regular attacks by Israeli soldiers, no human 

rights, no state and millions of refugees around the world - 

that is still a daily reality for the Palestinian people. When I 

was going I wanted to understand - How come this is going on 

for so many years? 

To get to Palestine you have to go via Israel. You do not 

mention anything about Palestine on the border and later, 

you get there by bus through a check-point. When I arrived 

to the refugee camp and went through the “streets” for the 

first time I started to feel the place; concrete 2-floor buildings 

of different shape, no trees, no space, a lot of kids and men in 

the streets. The PTG students came a week later and we 

stayed the first few days in Jerusalem the “Holy city”, and 

the hot political spot in this issue. It was a good place to 

make investigations, to get to know people’s opinions and 

observe the life of a very diverse and religious city. 

Finally we arrived to the refugee camp. My students seemed 

to feel quite comfortable for such different surroundings. We 

met our host and from there the real experience of Palestine 

had started. During 2 weeks we visited the most politically 


and culturally important towns, stayed with Arabic families, 

talked to many people about the issue and could really 

experience how life is like under occupation. I had a lot of 

hard feelings and daily situations which showed me a bit 

more of the truth. Every time I had to take a public bus 

from Bethlehem to Jerusalem we passed through the check 

point, where 

Israeli soldiers with huge guns would go inside of the bus 

and poke random Palestinians with it to show their ID. I was 

watching and tried not to freak out, since I would simply get 

into big troubles just for the fact of being on the Palestinian 

territory. We painted the youth center of the Karama organization, 

reorganized the garden and made nice activities and 

discussions with local kids. While traveling around the West 

Bank you experience beautiful landscapes, mountains, desserts 

and terrible military surroundings. One of the worst 

parts for me was to see The Wall. 700km long, 8-10m high 

concrete blocks are cutting this land into pieces. It stands in 

front of the Palestinian houses and goes through the olive 

gardens to “protect” Israeli citizens from “dangerous” Arabs. 

It looks as a physical expression of hate and mistrust. When 

back in Denmark we will try to tell more to people about the 

issue and organize a summer camp again. Few days after we 

left Palestine, a terrible massacre happened again in Gaza - 

hundreds of people were killed by Israeli soldiers. While 

talking with my friends at home I could see that Western 

media shows Palestinians as aggressive terrorists, missing 

totally the part why do people react like that. Media writes, 

“Palestinians shoot a rocket first”. Well, who was really first? 

During the travel, I’ve got confident in what I know. There will be 

a lot of discussions to take with opposite opinions, but talking about 

the issue is all I can do to express my support for Palestinian people. 

8

8th of October is a teacher's day in Mozambique. 

Usually it is a holiday for the teachers and students, 

but since our students and teachers are living 

together on the campus, I and Gita have decided 

to bring the students to the museum in 

Maputo. We confirmed the idea with other teachers, 

have agreed on the budget, transport, food 

packages and were ready to go. 

We were supposed to leave at 6, but the school bus 

was late to come back to university, students were 

late, because they have seen there were no bus… It 

was heavily raining and it was not the best way to 

start the morning. 

After we have managed all our small issues, finally 

at 6.30 we were moving to Maputo. First we went 

to the museum of Geology. The guide was telling 

the history of the continents, inner structure of the 

earth, explaining about rock formations and of 

course showing many beautiful stones, rocks and 

minerals. I've already forgot all small morning 

problems, because I felt so excited to see how curiously 

the students were listening and exploring. It 

was the first time for many of them to visit a mu 


Visiting the museum 

in Maputo, by Ruta DNS 2009 


seum; even many are 18 and more years old. After 

talking pictures with diamonds, gold and many 

others, we moved to the museum of History. 

The museum of History is the biggest museum in 

Maputo, it shows exhibitions of how the local people 

were living long time ago, their traditional costumes, 

house attributes, things what they have used 

in their daily life. It also has a big exhibition of the 

wild animals. When one of the students went inside 

and saw a huge safari exhibition, she was so emotional 

touched that she started to cry and had to 

leave. She was afraid, that the fake animals would 

hurt her. But the rest of the students really liked to 

take pictures together with lions, elephants, giraffes 

and many others. 

The last one was the museum of art, where we have 

seen many wooden sculptures, modern paintings of 

famous Mozambican painters, many modern and 

futuristic arts. I think it was a new experience for 

many students, because art is not very popular between 

the people here. Most of the visitors in the 

museums were foreigners. 

9


DNS TVIND 

The Necessary Teacher Training 


Thank you for reading! 

You are most welcome to write 

us your feedback, comments 

and questions! 

Students and teachers from DNS 

Skorkærvej 8 

Ulfborg 

Denmark 

6990 

Email: info@dns-tvind.dk 

Phone: +45 21 12 43 60 

You are most welcome to follow us on different pages: 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PromotionTvind 

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnstvind 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DNSdenmark 

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/DNStvind 


10

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